More Beetles 



But, when we expose it on the table, we 

 perceive a glaring anomaly, which disap- 

 pears upon reflection. Support is lacking 

 on every side save from below. The dorsal 

 pads, the principal ambulacra, take contact 

 with this one surface; and the .animal 

 straightway walks upside down. The Ceto- 

 nia-grub surprises us by the strangeness of 

 its locomotion merely because we are observ- 

 ing it outside its usual environment. It is 

 thus that the other corpulent, short-legged 

 grubs would travel the grubs of the Cock- 

 chafer, the Oryctes l or the Anoxia-beetle 

 were it possible to unroll them entirely and 

 to straighten out the crook of their mighty 

 paunches. 



In June, which is laying-season, the old 

 larvae that have lived through the winter 

 make their preparations for the transforma- 

 tion. The nymphal caskets are contempo- 

 rary with the ivory globules from which the 

 new generation will emerge. Although 

 rudely made, the Cetonia-cocoons are not 

 without a certain elegance. They are ovoids 

 almost the size of a Pigeon's egg. Those 

 of the Funeral-pall Cetonia, the smallest of 

 the species inhabiting my heap of leaf- 



1 The Rhinoceros-Beetle. Translator's Note. 

 24 



